Menu

This Explains a Lot

People ask me what I do with my time now that I’m retired, and I never know what to tell them. I’m busy all day it seems, but I don’t get anything done.

It finally dawned on me the other day, just exactly why that is.

Last Thursday was a typical weekday: Get up between 6:30 and 7:00. Put dog out, bring dog in. Feed cat. Feed dog. Make coffee. Feed me. Head to the couch to watch CBS This Morning (love Charlie Rose!), eat my granola and check Facebook and email.

Got a call that aqua aerobics had been cancelled because of the cold and snow so jump in the shower, get dressed, make bed. Put dog out again and beg her to poop, explaining that it’s too cold and snowy for a walk.

I’m trying to do Peter Walsh’s 31 Days to Get Organized Challenge, but I’m behind. Decide to just keep going in order, which means I need to go through the freezer, take stock of what I have, plan meals and get rid of old, inedible and unknown stuff. Before getting down to that, I need to clean up the kitchen a bit.

I made cookies the night before for the neighbor. I’d already made him cookies for Christmas but they sucked, and I’d promised him another batch. The second batch was much better.

Anyway, I’d left a mess, so I put what I could into the dishwasher and filled the sink for the hand-washables. While a sink load was soaking, I started to put away the pots, etc., left drying on the counter. When I put a skillet in the cupboard, I remembered that I’d decided to get rid of a saute pan that I’d acquired some years ago and never used. Fished that out from the back of the pots and pan cupboard and underneath it, discovered a still-in-the-package Martha Stewart vegetable steamer.

I knew, and now you know, that I already have two steamers, a silicone one for the microwave and a very nice stainless steel steamer that came with my cookware. The reasonable thing to do would be to take said package, along with the saute pan, and put it in the ARC box for donations.

I, of course, ripped open the package and proceeded to put the damned steamer together. This entailed finding a philips-head screwdriver. Found the screwdriver and spent the next 15 minutes putting the little silicone handle thing on the steamer thing. Admired my handiwork.

Faced the fact that I already have two vegetable steamers (see above). Put steamer packaging in the recycle. Took assembled steamer and saute pan to the ARC box.

ARC box is full. Decided to call and schedule a pick up, so I go into my office/studio and call ARC. While on hold, I find a list of things I needed to do last month, among which was to call for some medical supplies. Finally get to schedule a pickup (February 2). Decide since I’m sitting at the phone to call for the medical supplies I should have called for last month.

Get transferred twice and put on hold twice. Talk to a very nice lady and get supplies ordered. Cross that off the month-old list.

Spend time looking for another cardboard box to start a second ARC box. Find it. Realize there’s not room for this box where the first one is. Sit on couch staring around trying to figure out where I’m going to put this stuff until February 2nd. If I move the cat tree from the corner of the living room to in front of the window in the dining room, I can put the ARC boxes in that corner. The problem with the dining room is that the day before, the dining room table collapsed. It’s still there. In pieces.

Take a grocery bag full of frozen, decimated bananas I’d been saving for smoothies out to the compost bin. Take trash full of freezer burned and unidentified freezer bags dating back to 2015 to the trash.

The trips outside in single-digit temperatures made me cold, so I took a nap. Got up in time to watch the news and feed the animals.

And that is my typical day. Accomplished three things. Four if you count making my bed.